Flashback Poisenous Revenge {Ninus}

[Ronan Dugal]

Helping Ninus to put Millie on the table, Ronan grunted as the woman brushed against his shoulder. The cut wasn't deep and had already stopped bleeding but it was annoying and caused him slight spikes of pain every time he moved his arm. He made sure she stayed knocked out while Ninus tied her down to the table. If it hadn't been for the knives thrown at him by the woman on the table he might have enjoyed it a little more to tie up a woman. "Try not to kill her. I'd rather keep her alive and well to hand her over to the knights after you've extracted all that we need." With that, Ronan left the kitchen to Ninus and whatever poisons he might concoct in order to draw the much desired truth from the woman's lips. Looking up the stairs for the maid, he saw her standing at the railing looking down at him. "Dear lady, my colleague requests your assistance in the kitchen. I would like to warn you, though. If you're faint of heart I wouldn't suggest going in." The firm look on her face and the slow steps she took down the stairs told Ronan that she was both interested and scared by what might be in the kitchen. Without waiting for her to enter, Ronan moved further through the large suite and into the room where the ladies were sitting. For some reason he felt tired but he pulled up a smile. "Ladies, not to worry. Everything is fine." He sat himself down in Millie's chair with a satisfied sigh and groaned as his shoulder spiked up again. "Any of you ladies have skill with needle and thread? I'm afraid I bumped into a knife outside." Ronan looked around the circle, smiling, as he started to unbutton the vest of his outfit.

[Ninus Aurellius]

[occ=OOC]Sorry about the wait Ronan, I had an intervention on my CS I had to take care of.[/ooc]

The Prince of Rats Ninus frowned at Ronan's words. Hand her over to the knights? Hand her over to do his work for him, to serve their version of justice? To have her sit in front of a judge and work her womanly wiles, and probably slip between their fingers to kill again? No. Not under his watch. He looked angrily at the woman for a moment, and rooted about in her pantry. Peach pits, a handful of them, lay in a basket. No one would keep peach pits about...she had no courtyard with which to grow them into trees. A small linen bag yielded ground up cherry pits, into such a fine dust that Ninus was rather impressed by her skills. Her skills with the knife explained the slitting of throats. But from what Ninus had seen she lacked tact and subtlety. He laid out the poisons in bowls, cracking open one of the peach pits to find the soft, almond-like centers he needed. The cherry powder he mixed with a bit of water from the kitchen's rain barrel to make a paste. He set the bowls on the counter, cleaning out his syringe with a clean bowl of water. It was an arduous and annoying process by which he alternated between oil and water being sucked up into the syringe, ending with simple olive oil from her own pantry. Expensive stuff, but Ninus cared little when such an important thing was at stake. Cricet looked nervously at the door when the cleaning lady came in. Ninus rubbed his hands dry with a towel and approached her, taking her hands in his stained ones. "My lady. Thou hast suffered the lashes of this woman from tongue and broom. Thou hast suffered her whims and desires with no thanks or gratitude. Today I must find if knowledge of my poisons hides within her heart, along with the will to send several men beside her husband to the grave. If thou art strong of will and heart, willst thou aid me in finding the truth? The knights will not find it. She is wise in the way of poisons if she be the poisoner we seek. The knights are loud, and would destroy the investigation my dear knight of coins and I have started. I humbly beg your help and aid." he said quietly, looking her in the eyes.

[Ronan Dugal]

Ronan was worried about leaving his friend alone with Millie but he was just as worried about letting a group of chatty, somewhat (very) drunk women loose on the streets, claiming to have witnessed murder and assault and all manner of problem behavior. If Ninus decided to end Millie's life for some reason, they would have a different problem on their hands, on that Ronan would be unable to fix. He put his vest aside, hanging it over the side of the sofa he was sitting on. Slightly impeded by the cut in his arm, he unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt before slipping his shoulder out of his clothing, revealing the cut there. The clothes were red with blood around where the cut had been in his shirt. Due to the color of his vest, most of the blood color went unnoticed. One of the less drunk ladies gasped at the wound and quickly got up, while the rest ended their usefulness after gasping at the wound. The one woman sat herself next to him and started to fiddle with the needle and thread she had gotten from somewhere. Sending a reassuring smile around the circle of women, Ronan made sure to keep an eye on all of them while the needle pierced his skin, starting to patch him up again. Although every prick of the needle hurt him, Ronan made sure to keep looking at the woman, who were all either doing their best not to look at his wound or watching as the other woman patched him up. He wondered what Ninus was doing in the kitchen, the dead silence in the room allowing him to hear muttered voices coming from the kitchen. The maid stared at Ninus as she slowly worked her way to what he requested from her. At first she only saw her mistress tied to the table, unconscious, and for a moment she felt smugly happy. Served her right, right? But as she listened to Ninus and understood what it was all about, the woman started to notice that she didn't want to be part of any harm to her mistress, no matter how badly she had been treated by her. She let Ninus finish his speech before softly removing her hands from his. "I am sorry, ser, but I can not be nor do I want to be a part of this. She may be a horrible person but I am not about to help you torture her." And with that she turned away from Ninus and left the kitchen. As she passed by the room Ronan was in together with the company of the guests, she stopped and hesitated for a moment. Her initial thought had been to go out and get the knights but she wasn't too sure about it all. The man had seem rather upset about it all. She stood in the hallway for several moments before turning towards the room and entering it. "Excuse me, Ser. Your colleague has requested your help." Ronan looked up at her and hesitated for a moment. Wincing slightly he redressed and passed by the maid on his way out. "If possible, could you keep them here for a little while longer, until we finish talking to your mistress?" When he saw the look on her face, he somehow knew that things would be fine here and that the problems would most likely come from the kitchen and not this sitting room.

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus waited for Millie to awaken. He had stuffed a dish rag into her mouth to prevent her from screaming, and was now sitting coldly on the counter, preparing himself. He had never done anything like this, and torture was not his forte. He didn't want to harm someone, not to this extent...but the pride in who and what he was forced him to come to grips with what he was about to do. He took a deep breath as he watched the woman wake. "Thou hast slandered my profession, which extends from the time the first man learned to hunt with a poisoned dart. Answer mine questions, and I will not use what thine hands have insulted." he lifted the peach pit oil, the strong scent of almonds coming from the bowl. "The weakening power of peach, the anger of the cherry tree. Why dost thou have poison, poised in thy pantry? No fruit did I find, but ground pits and bare peach stones." He pulled out Millie's gag, waiting for a reply.

[Ronan Dugal]

Ronan walked in, opening the kitchen door slowly in case he would have to adjust to the scene. But he was lucky. Or early. Ninus was simply standing next to Millie, reaching for her as he took the gag out of her mouth. Ronan had only overheard the last bit of his speech. He had mentioned the poison and somehow Ronan knew what Ninus was planning. And it didn't really bother him too much that he was. He closed the door behind him quietly and leaned against one of the many cupboards hanging around. At first Millie felt groggy and sleepy as she tried to focus on the noise around her. She couldn't move and a lazy tug with her arm told her it was stuck or tied up. She tried to shake the sleepiness from her brain, shaking her head a few times as the voice became clearer. "...-cherry tree. Why dost thou have poison, poised in thy pantry? No fruit did I find, but ground pits and bare peach stones." She saw him reach for her and pulled something out of her mouth. She felt thirsty, her mouth dry. As the sleep quickly fled for her rising anger, Millie focused on the man leaning over her, her glare full of her anger. "Untie me, you fool." She spat at Ninus as she tugged on the ropes, trying to break free. Ronan hoped she would smarten up and just talk. If she was the person they had been looking for, Ronan could finish his little quest and get on with his life. If not, she could point them in the right direction for them to find whoever had done it. Or so Ronan hoped. He had gone from a friend's request to find someone to cure his poisoning to hunting down a serial poisoner who, as far as the evidence showed, turned out to be a woman married to a man she disliked, if not hated. It was far from what he had expected at the start of his, supposedly short, journey. Ronan stood back and watched Ninus to see how he would react to Millie.

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus sighed and opened the drawers in the kitchen. He laid out kitchen knives, an iron tenderizer. "Madam, thy tongue would do well to answer questions and little else. A lie loses its teeth when confronted with the tools at my disposal." Ninus said coldly. "I have little pity for thy hands, for what I have seen they have spread destruction and death upon men who have little need for it. Explain thyself, and do so quickly, for the poisons are poised and ready." He looked at Ronan, wondering if he would interfere with what was about to take hold. He needed to know if this was his poisoner...and if it was, it was unlikely she would go to the Knights. Ninus had been spoiling for the death of such a man for a few weeks now. "Answer the question I posed to thee upon awakening. Why dost thou have the cherry and peach, bare of flesh and ready to be sprinkled in water or food?" Ninus demanded of Millie, grasping her jaw in his stained, skinny fingers. "As a rat burrows deep into the filth to avoid the cat, so is persuasion useless to me. Answer."

[Ronan Dugal]

Millie watched as Ninus started to rummage through her kitchen, selecting knives and a tenderizer from her cutlery. She couldn't help but swallow at the sight of Ninus carefully placing the tools in sight, making sure they were nicely organized. "I have little pity for you! You're no different from me. You want something so now you're going to kill me to get it. How are we different?! Why is it not you tied to the table?!" She pulled on the ropes, feeling them cut into her skin, drawing drops of blood which trickled down her hands and fingers and dropped onto the floor. Ronan hadn't moved from his spot yet and was simply looking as the two threw words back and forth, both claiming to be right. Ninus seemed a little on edge, angry even, but Ronan kept back for now. If he could scare her into talking, all the better. If Ninus decided to actually torture and poison the woman, Ronan would probably step in and stop him. There was no need to go that far. Besides, if he did, Ninus wouldn't be able to step back anymore. The knights would be even more on the lookout for him then. Ronan shifted a little, his shoulder starting to lose some of the feeling in it. "He gave them to me. That's why I have them." She yelled, her voice shrill as she felt Ninus' fingers on her jaw, gripping it tightly. She tried her best to pull back and made some unsuccessful tugs with her head but her overall position wasn't getting any better and it was starting to filter through her angry mind. If her eyes could have killed, Ninus would have been dead several times over as she stared defiantly at the man who was about to torture her. oocSorry for the very slow posting rate lately, Ninus.

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus listened closely to Millie, ignoring her insults. "He. Who is he." Ninus said flatly, eyeing the way her wrists were being shredded by the rope. "Thy death will come crudely, at the hands of the beasts of burden who run this city, if thy lips give me a name. If not...a death like the one you handed your husband is slow indeed, and I can make it last weeks. Months. Thy flesh will burn and exhaustion will claim thee, no solid food will you take nor enough water will you drink. You will kill yourself, and I shall watch. Tell me. Who gave these to you?" The poisoner was nervous...where would this trail lead them? Who would they eventually find? They were drawing so close. From here, all it would take would be to find the poisoner and kill him. Then the mad chase would be at an end. Ninus looked at Ronan in concern, noticing him roll his shoulder. He washed his hands and approached him, looking at the stitches. "Keep thine shoulder still, lest you rip the sewing." he told him gently, warming water for tea and a good hot cloth. "My dear, patient ser. Thy journey is nearly at an end."

[Ronan Dugal]

Millie looked at Ninus as he explained what would happen to her. It was the end for her either way. She would go to prison with the knights, who would show no mercy and who would have her killed. Or she could suffer for a long time, probably several seasons if the guy who had been talking to her so far had any say in it, and then die. Maybe the knights would be forgiving. Sure, like that was going to work. But she had seen the devastation her husband had gone through, the pain and suffering he had been through before dying. Almost half a season had he been suffering, burning up, unable to even lift his own head up to drink. All these thoughts passed through her head as Ninus moved over to Ronan to take a look at him. Ronan straightened up from the cupboard he had been leaning on. Even now, in the middle of trying to kill someone, Ninus was worried about him. "I know, I know. It's just uncomfortable." Ronan moved away a bit and leaned with his other shoulder against the wall as he looked at Ninus seemingly preparing tea. "I'd love some tea, if you're making." Ronan made sure to ask first, lest he got himself a cup of cherry and peach poison. On one end, he was impressed by Ninus' ability to shift between the caring man Ronan knew and the torturing man Millie had come to know. Whichever one was the real one didn't matter as long as Ninus got the result out of Millie. "Karis. His name is Karis and he's not from around, that's all I know, I swear. Don't poison me." She quickly answered as she watched how Ninus casually prepared himself a nice cup of tea. The amount of care he seemed to have for her with that gesture drained the last of the color from her cheeks, leaving her skin white under the now quite visible make up. She lay dead still on the table, afraid of drawing attention to herself, hoping that maybe Ninus would just forget about her now. Then all this could be finished and done with.

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus quietly boiled water over the cooking fire and poured a cup of tea for Ronan, pouring the rest of the hot water over a dishcloth. He pressed the dishcloth to Ronan's wound carefully. "Relax." he told him, and glanced back at Milli when she spoke of a man named Karis. "Do not play stupid with me." Ninus warned. "So much poison takes much time. The peach pits alone would take weeks. There are but pounds of pits here." he picked up the cherry powder. "Hours of work, weeks of gathering, this man Karis you knew and knew well. None of my brethren would keep this much on them, nor create it from some light request. Thy companion had knowledge of thy plans to torture thy husband." The poisoner picked up the hot steel kettle and settled it squarely on her stomach, the extreme warmth leeching through her clothing and beginning to scorch the flesh beneath. "I was taught by my father that a creature that lies deserves to have its eyes plucked out, lest it cast distrustful glances again." Ninus growled, leaning on the kettle and pressing the steaming metal deeper.